Pros: i enjoy having responsibilities and being able to operate the store single-handed at times

Cons: not enough hours per week

There are many times throughout the week that I am left alone to open the store, or for multiple hours in the evening before closing. I must count the till in the morning, file emails and daily memos, provide excellent customer service on a first-name basis with the client, ensure general housekeeping of the store, balance the cash till at night and place deposit in the safe, nightly call-in to the district manager, close and lock store.

Was excited to start the position at 13$/hr which is 2$ more then minimum wage. However, Manager expected me to take over doing all of her work so she could go shopping and talk on the phone all day in the change rooms. Was expected to work 7 days a week and well over 40 hours even though the position was only part time. All staff members there were actively looking for different jobs, and 5 people had quit in 2 months ( the store only has 5 employees at a time).

I enjoyed working in retail for being able to help mothers to be during the special maternity period. Work days were busy but still enjoyable to see all mothers to be finding comfortable clothes and thank you for it. I hence customer services skills, sales skills, and to satisfy need and wants of customers.

With working in a maternity store you had a short period of time to work with your customers. By that I mean they are only pregnant for 9 months so our interaction was short yet fun because we were able to walk expectant mothers through the process of being pregnant and giving them fashion advise for this small but important demographic community.

My job as the manager was training my staff to work with these ladies and understand that they are different from the average shopper. Their needs are different and we needed to be aware of that on a constant bases.

I also did the merchandising of the store as the floor plan dictated, however I made store based decisions on what was best for my location.

The staff was also trained on floor set because I am a strong believer in knowing I cant be there 24/7 so my staff was taught how to do the floor set.

I also believed in training for succession as my goal was to move up in the company and I wanted a trained staff to continue running the store.

I enjoyed training and coaching my staff, especially the staff that hadn't experienced being pregnant.

The hardest part of the job was the company was American owned and the laws in the US and Canada are different so it was a challenge when the Canadian stores were being governed by US policies.